Gian P. Gentile (CFR): The Death of American Strategy. Benjamin E. Goldsmith (Sydney) and Yusaku Horiuchi (ANU): In Search of Soft Power: Does Foreign Public Opinion Matter for U.S. Foreign Policy? Philip Alston (NYU): The CIA and Targeted Killings Beyond Borders. Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Angola were the three rings of the Reagan Doctrine, the war by proxy, and none turned out well — the former president’s support of despots and violent insurgencies guaranteed a future of errant, and deadly, U.S. foreign policy. From The National Interest, a hotline with Iran? Ted Galen Carpenter on dealing with governments we loathe; and Trevor Thrall on ignorance, ideology, and the power of propaganda. How many secret wars are we fighting? U.S. special ops forces are being deployed in more and more nations — and the public has no idea. An excerpt from Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform by Paul R. Pillar. Twilight saga of the American empire? A review of Andrew J. Bacevich's Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, Philip S. Golub's Power, Profit and Prestige: A History of American Imperial Expansion, and Chalmers Johnson's Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope. The All-American: John Kerry knows as well as anyone that diplomacy fails most of the time — but someone has to go to Islamabad. The introduction to The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order by David Ekbladh. From Modern Age, a review of Political Violence: Belief, Behavior, and Legitimation; and The Only Superpower: Reflections on Strength, Weakness, and Anti-Americanism by Paul Hollander. Fran Shor on declining US hegemony and rising Chinese power, a formula for conflict? Immanuel Wallerstein on the world consequences of U.S. decline. The West and the rest in a one-model-fits-all world: Pepe Escobar on the decline and fall of just about everyone.
